The Kansas City Ballet’s current season is to some extent a tribute to its visionary artistic director, William Whitener, who bids farewell to the company this spring after 17 years here. The winter program that opened on March 15^th at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre highlighted two important aspects of William’s legacy that will continue to echo for years to come: his longtime devotion to living choreographers and especially prominent women in the field, and his dedication to creating new works of his own for the company, which were always nicely tailored to fit a company of KCB’s size (currently 28 dancers).

The program was a fond opportunity to see three of the more intriguing works that the company has offered over the years, beginning with a piece by Eugene Ballet artistic director Toni Pimble that KCB commissioned in 2010. Concerto Grosso is a four-movement ballet set to a dynamic chamber-like orchestral work of similar title by Ernst Bloch, performed by pianist Dan Velicer and the Kansas City Symphony in the pit. It moved through tender duets and complex ensembles danced to vividly rhythmic textures, all of which demonstrated an incisive synthesis of classical and contemporary styles. Jennifer Carroll’s costumes in lavenders and blues played off the dappled pattern of the décor, which shifted colors in a dreamlike haze courtesy of Kirk Bookman’s lighting design. A strong opening male ensemble gave way to a melancholy dirge, danced with palpable chemistry on opening night by Aisling Hill-Connor and Geoffrey Kropp. (Casts vary.) She is in mourning, he tries to bring her out of her darkness; additional dancers enter to “echo” the couple’s expressive movements. The Pastorale began on a low boil and led to a joyous coda, and a final Fugue showed fine sensitivity to the score – as successive dance-steps of the theme were altered to match the subtle permutations of the fugal line. Only in this movement did the eye begin to weary, as the motions became busy and over-active. But Concerto Grosso remains one of the better ballets that our local company has brought into being.

Jessica Lang’s brief Splendid Isolation III never fails to capture the eye, and on opening night Angelina Sansone had the privilege of wearing Elena Comendador’s striking skirt – yards and yards of light-weight white fabric that billows and twists in patterns that at times seem to imprison the dancer, at times send her creative spirit soaring into almost hyperactive fervor. The first time one sees this piece it is “the skirt” that draws attention, but this time I found myself focusing on the ever-supple and commanding presence of Logan Pachciarz, whose dancing was a model of limpid detail and form. Set to the Adagietto of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, the piece purports to be an expression of Alma Mahler’s (real-life) attempts to emerge as an independent creative artist, despite her husband’s insistence that she remain a stay-at-home wife. One wishes the piece could function apart from the story, but as a work of pure dance it still feels less than convincing – too reliant, perhaps, on the skirt as “prop.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the first ballets William created for KCB, was a Whitener favorite from the outset, and it’s a pity we haven’t seen it more often. It has much going for it: Mendelssohn’s peerless incidental music; elegant, spectacularly detailed scenic and costume design by David Walker (originally created for Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, complete with a lavish, leafy forest lit with shimmering subtlety by Kirk Bookman); and William’s finely wrought and often quite humorous dance. Actors Vanessa Severoand Robert Gibby Brand read pertinent passages from the play – she somewhat heavily, he with just-so lightness – stepping out to the outer edges of the stage at appropriate times. Tempe Ostergren was ideally cast as Titania, which she danced with charm and delicate hints of whimsy. Anthony Krutzkamp was an assertive Oberon, communicating with strong physicality the character’s haughty but good-natured self-absorption. The fairies, danced by company members and students from the KCB School, were nothing short of magnificent – not just “sweet” but airy and spirited and with a confidence that suggesting that it was they, really, who were in charge.

Angelina, Nadia Iozzo, Josh Spell and Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye performed the love couples with grace, and Yoshiya Sakurai was a quick-footed Puck. Ian Poulis danced Bottom with playful wit without resorting to too-obvious gags. The rustics were willfully heavy-footed, perhaps a tad too much so (bordering on the silly at times) considering the refinement of the surroundings. The orchestra under music director Ramona Pansegrau’s baton played reliably (though interpretations seemed bound primarily to the needs of dance and thus perhaps less adventurous musically). The women of the Kansas City Chorale, with soloists Sarah Tannehill Anderson and Rebecca Lloyd, sang glowingly from the pit. Of course the challenge of compressing the bard’s epic comedy into an hour is that dramatic resolutions come about so quickly they seem almost “pat”; nevertheless this ballet still stands up as a fine piece of dance.

The KC Ballet’s program runs through March 24^th. For tickets call 816-931-2232 or go to kcballet.org.

To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send email to phorsley@sbcglobal.net.